An occasional series of lesson ideas using songs you’re not likely to hear in a coursebook…
Artist: The Boo Radleys
Song: Wish I Was Skinny
Written by: Carr, Martin, James
Continue reading Songs In the Key Of ELT – Wish I Was Skinny
Fake news, post-truth, and alternative facts are three buzz terms that seem to sum up this strange time we live in. It’s something that fascinates me, and as a language teacher I feel that I’m in a position where I can not … Continue reading Fake news – a lesson plan
A few years ago I wrote this cheeky post, reminding teachers that sometimes it’s a good idea to shut up for a while. I’m returning to this idea in a slightly more reflective way due to this post on Brainpickings about the twentieth-century novelist, poet, playwright, and psychiatrist Paul Goodman who examined “the nine types of silence present in life” in his 1972 book Speaking and Language. Continue reading I’ve Heard of TTT vs STT, But What Does That Really Mean?
I saw this list the other day, and I thought it was perfect for adapting for ELT bloggers. So I present, ripe and ready for your Pinterest board… 150 ELT blog post ideas for when you’ve hit writers block Product review – something you use in the classroom which isn’t a book Describe your perfect classroom Describe your perfect student Describe your perfect boss Invite someone to do a guest post (but only if they have a track record or you trust them) Tell us who you are. Who you really are. Top 5 resources A day in your life Or a … Continue reading 150 ELT blog post ideas for when you’ve hit writers block
50 Activities For The First Day Of School, published by Alphabet Publishing, is, as the title suggests, a highly practical resource book for teachers looking for ways to add some variety to their first day activities. The author, Walton Burns, has created this ebook as a handy guide containing a variety of tasks mainly for lower level learners, although they are easily adaptable for all abilities and ages. In fact, one of the book’s main strengths is the flexibility the activities have, and it’s easy to imagine them being tweaked for use in any lesson. Walton starts with the most … Continue reading Book review – 50 Activities For The First Day Of School
It’s time for the third part of my extremely occasional series of lesson ideas based on songs, especially the kind of songs that don’t usually appear in coursebooks. Here’s a song by one of my favourite bands of all time…
Artist: LCD Soundsystem
Song: New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down
Written by: James Murphy Continue reading Songs In The Key Of ELT – New York I Love You
Readers of this blog will remember a previous post in which I argue that punctuation errors by students shouldn’t be ignored… There is a temptation to ignore (punctuation errors) which must be resisted, I think. It’s very easy to think that the priority must be the vocabulary and grammar, and while I would agree with that, it doesn’t have to come at the expense of form. If the students are writing in the first place, they need to understand that in a professional capacity, which is how most students will use their writing abilities in English, poor writing can create … Continue reading Book review: Punctuation…? by User Design
